New Year

It is really bad if you have to check your blog to see when you last posted! And I was horrified to learn it was sometime late last year!! I know I've written many since then, usually only in my head as I am walking to or from work, and there are a number in my Draft folder, but they never actually were published. So are many other things in my life now too.

I have been extremely busy with a very long and horrible trial that has gone on far too long. However, the jury finally came in this week, and sentencing will proceed by the end of this week, and then there will be only some administrative work and it will be over. This one has surely taken much out of me. The financial cost is astounding, but the human cost is immeasurable! So many cases are the same.

During all this hub-bub, I have tried to keep a sense of some sanity and have been spinning. A long time ago, probably nearly a year ago, I picked up a large bag of some unspun roving at a good price. Little by little, over the summer and fall, I have spun it up and then finally plied it all. I had a lot -- enough for a good-sized sweater, I would think. It's not terribly soft wool, but would be excellent for outer wear, and I may have a few ideas in mind for it.

This was all spun on my wheel -- I felt guilty for neglecting my poor little wheel -- and plied on my trusty CD spindle (because it holds more yarn), and I put as much on the spindle as I could for the plying. I created these adorable little beehives! I didn't make up any skeins -- I just left them in these hive-shaped cones, and will put them into skeins later on, when I have nothing else to do! ha-ha The colour is a mid-grey-brown, rather neutral, and I may over-dye it at some stage to give it more depth. But that is another project.

Unfortunately, the masters of this site (that unnamed G-word) will not allow me to insert a photo I have prepared of these cones, so you will just have to see them here: beehives

I've also been doing more spinning with the white fleece, and that will be in another posting. The weather has been terribly cold here for a few days (-30C at times) and then it is above freezing on another! One never knows what to wear to work, because it can change by the time you go home! Still, there has only been just a skiff of snow, and it all melts in a few days. Not so where Mom lives; she has had a lot of snow, and high winds, and very low temperatures. I'm glad I left long ago, but it's harder on her now that she is older. the only bright spot in all of this is that on most cloudy mornings, I can see the sun shining on the snow-covered mountains from my apartment and from work. I do have to say that is a very nice sight to see. I may have included a photo of the mountains from here in an earlier post. More to come.